GOD’S HEART FOR CHILDREN:
Practical theology from global perspectives
Editors Rosalind Tan, Nativity A. Petallar and
Lucy A. Hefford
Langham Publishing. 282 pages. £17.99
ISBN 978 1 839 732 751
Books on the theology of children are rare and so when one comes along I’m keen to read it. Even more rare is to pick up a book that considers children from a global perspective.
For those reasons God’s Heart for Children is a gem. It comes out of the ministry of Viva, a charity working globally with children at risk.
This book follows on from the earlier for volume Understanding God’s Heart Children, but has intentionally chosen contributing authors from African, Asian and South American contexts. There are eight sections covering the child’s dignity, the family, community and society as well as hope, church and mission. The eighth section on creation care is an addition from the previous book. Each section begins with a chapter on the global critical nature of the topic – this demonstrates the necessity of the subject often in gruelling and moving detail. Then there is a chapter giving a Biblical-theological response – the nature of the authors chosen means these are rarely humdrum in content. Finally, each of the topics has a chapter giving a case study on how Christians have begun to respond here – again the stories told and examples given are often moving.
There are many parts of this book which are superb, but it is best considered as a whole; the majority-world voices speaking about children are so refreshing to read. Whilst there are places where it felt as if some of the individual authors could have held more strictly to their brief, none of this takes away from what the book does for us as Western Christians to widen our vision for the needs of the child.
While this book will not give you eight practical tips for your church children’s ministry, what it will do is enlarge your heart for children globally. Langham Publishing and the editors have done a great work in producing this book, for which I’m thankful.
